Silent Lunches Follow Food Fight

Middle School Moves To Send Kids A Message

The food fighters: mischievous sixth-graders at Omni Middle School in Boca Raton.

The punishment: silent lunches for two weeks for the entire sixth grade class, ending Jan. 20.

"I can pretty much assure you we won't have a food fight again," Principal Mark Stenner declared. "Two weeks -- it makes a point."

Like character John "Bluto" Blutarsky's handiwork in Animal House, the scene in Omni's cafeteria Dec. 22 featured a frenzy of meal-slinging students that caught administrators and teachers off guard.

"It was a mess," Stenner said. "It was a lot of kids."

To discourage a repeat performance, he disciplined the food "throwers" and implemented the quiet lunch punishment for all 350 sixth-graders as soon as they returned Monday from Winter Break. Absolutely no talking is permitted for the 25 minutes and students must sit in assigned seats in alphabetical order.

"It was very quiet and very controlled," said parent Susie Jacobs, who observed the kids chowing turkey-and-cheese sandwiches in silence Thursday.

Although her son was in the courtyard during the fight, she said, "I 100 percent agree with the administration's decision and I'm glad they took a strong position on it."

It's not the first time silent lunches have been instituted in Palm Beach County. They typically are a means to quash middle school pranks, administrators say.

"Probably most [middle] schools try a silent lunch at one time or another," said Dave Benson, assistant director of the school district's Safe Schools department. As a form of punishment, it's effective because students "enjoy that social time" at lunch and don't want to lose it, he said.

"It's really boring," 12-year-old Glenn Marks said of the no-talking rule. "It's no fun. We're sitting there waiting for it to be over."

"Nobody likes it," added Shelaina Bloukos, 12. But she said she understands it.

"We had to be punished," Shelaina said. "It was a food fight. It wasn't supposed to happen."

Jacobs said she heard that a student displaced from Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina masterminded the event for the last day of classes before Winter Break, also the boy's last day at Omni. Other students knew, but no one told a teacher or staff member, she said.

The episode lasted only a few minutes. No one was hurt.

"People were hiding under the tables," said Glenn, who thinks the punishment isn't fair because many students didn't know about the fight.

Rebecca Klasfeld said her son was a victim.

"He got chocolate milk spilled on him, but he was not a participant," she said, offering her support of silent lunch.

"It's unfortunate the innocent have to suffer the consequences, but I think kids need to know there is no messing around," Klasfeld said.

Between 9 and 11 staff members keep guard over the silence. And there are consequences for any utterances.

"If we get caught talking we get a Saturday detention for three hours and we have to eat our lunch on [the cafeteria] stage," Shelaina said.

Still, it's a challenge to enforce the punishment, said Benson, recalling a no-talking lunch at Boca Raton Middle where he once was acting assistant principal.

"It's hard to keep every kid from whispering," he said.

Stenner is expecting full compliance and decorum more suited to the White House than Delta House.

"It is a way of making students understand we mean business," Stenner said. "We're not going to have that behavior here at Omni. We have good kids. It's just that they do stupid stuff now and then."

Marc Freeman can be reached at mjfreeman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6642.